It would be very easy to miss this little notebook of drawings—dated 1876—if it were buried in a stack, but happily the person I bought it from found it, as it is really marvelous!
There are a total of 11 drawings, each cleverly titled and each featuring a very singular character or characters, from two big bellied suited fellows on the first page (cover is missing) punningly titled (I believe) “close corporations” to a pair of fabulous articulated wooden dolls titled “Babes in the wood.” Elsewhere a few really fantastic characters caught in the rain, a man merged with a moon, a mother sitting atop her presumed lost child, and a traveller letting bygones by bygones. Toward the end the year of its making (I assume) is revealed in two drawings—one of an Abe Lincoln-looking character in tailcoat marking the 1876 centennial as “Stride of Liberty”, and then on the last page a woman with black cat at hear feet marking 1876 as a leap year as “A Ray of Hope.”
No cover. Three sheets have a drawing on each side. The other five drawings have nothing on the back of their sheet. The four middle sheets of the notebook are blank on both sides with no drawings. It is worn and stained and aged with tears around the edges here and there, but I think none of this interferes total enjoyment of these little gems of drawings! It is little: approx 3” x 4 5/8”.
You might also like
